296 GRASSES AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



early in July or as soon as the grass is fully headed 

 out and it may be continued until the autumn, when 

 necessary, but the late cut grass is not nearly so valu- 

 able as that cut early. The cutting is done by self- 

 rake reapers which leaves the grass in sheaves, where 

 it dries on the ground. Men follow the reapers and 

 straighten the sheaves for the "gleaners." When the 

 grass is dry enough, the gleaners follow ; lift the sheaves 

 from the ground and bind them. They are then drawn 

 on wagons to hay sheds and are finally baled for ship- 

 ment to the factory. The horses which do the work 

 on the meadows are shod with bog shoes, and the wag- 

 ons have wide tires. Late in the season, the grass is 

 cut and bound with binders. 



Securing Seed. No attempts have probably been 

 made to secure the seed of wire grass and it is ques- 

 tionable, if it will be necessary to give attention to the 

 matter for many years, if indeed ever. The grass 

 seems to require dwarfing or stunting in order to make 

 it produce seed. The seed is triangular in outline, 

 and ripens in July. It could most conveniently be 

 gathered probably by the stripper but may be also 

 harvested and threshed like the seed of other grain. 



Renewing. The only sense in which it would seem 

 possible to renew this grass, where it begins to fail 

 would seem to be by regulating the water supply. As it 

 is necessary to keep the grass practically free from other 

 grasses, where redtop and blue joint come in around 

 the edges of the meadow, the only practical way to re- 

 move them would be to submerge them until they 

 would vanish. There are also certain grasses of the 



